Battery Fires At Recycling Centres Are Costing the UK £1bn a Year

Wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are causing more than 10 fires a week at U.K. recycling centers, according to figures shared with the Guardian:

The Environment Services Association (ESA), the trade body for waste management companies, said its members had reported 1,518 fires in the year to March 2026. At least 541 of these fires were directly attributed to lithium ion batteries, the survey found. There were a further 216 battery fires in bin lorries [garbage trucks]. The ESA said the reported number of battery-related fires underestimated the scale of the problem, because in most incidents it was impossible to determine the cause of the blaze. A spokesperson said: “We know 40% of fires at recycling centres are caused by batteries, but we think the actual number is more like 70%.”

It estimates that annual cost of these fires has increased from £150m in 2021 to £1bn today…
The ESA is calling for a £5 deposit scheme on the sale of all vapes to ensure that vape users have an incentive to return used devices to retailers for safe disposal… [Patrick Brighty, the head of recycling policy at the ESA, said] “Vapes are among the biggest culprits because they’re cheap, abundant and typically have a short use-life.”

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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